Author's Notes

Nearly there. Just the epilogue left now. And Koji's channelling Takuya a little in this chapter, since he's already tried the awkward Koji approach and it didn't work.

So this fic will be done by next Sunday. It's kind of hard to believe, considering how daunting the original plan was. And to think I didn't even cut anything out; just rearranged things.

The second-last paragraph actually relates to Parkinson's disease operations, but I'm going to assume it's for all brain operations.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for the epilogue. And I know I'm being a little evil, but bear with me. :)

Mirror Distortions

AU. What if the twins' parents never divorced? What if being pushed together was the very rift that divided them? What if envy was spurned from societal influence-and the gate opened amidst?

Kouichi K & Kouji M

Chapter 24

The Light in the Darkness

Takuya almost crashed into Koji outside the room number the other had texted, but luckily the Digital World had taught the pair some quick reflexes. Not that it mattered in retrospect; true the two slices of cake Takuya was carrying in his backpack would have been squashed – and perhaps smeared all over the dual copies of homework sheets – but that was no biggie in retrospect.

In any case, they managed to avoid the collision and simply stood in the hallway, staring at each other.

'School's over already?' Koji said finally.

'Yep,' Takuya replied. 'Tommy wanted to come too, but he said he needed to do something important and might not make it, so he sent the book his brother gave him.'

'The one he borrowed from Koichi.'

'Yep, that's the one…I think.'

Koji closed his eyes. 'Thanks for coming.'

'Hey, no problem.' Takuya grinned. 'I also texted JP and he said he'd try to collect Koichi's homework – plus the stuff he missed on Monday because he's sure Koichi didn't note them down. And Zoe asked if you'd like her to come as well and I texted you but you had your phone turned off and –'

'This is a hospital,' Koji pointed out.

'So do you want her to come?' Takuya held out his own phone; it was still on. 'Since I haven't been in yet, it can stay on.'

Koji stared at the phone, then slowly shook his head.

Takuya snapped it closed and turned it off. 'She expected as much, otherwise she would have come anyway. She said it's probably better for me to be here.' He muttered something else that Koji missed.

'Huh?'

'I said I don't know what I can do that she can't.'

Koji couldn't help but scoff at that. 'Like totally distract me maybe?'

Takuya jumped, then hit his forehead with his palm. 'Oh my God, you're totally right. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.'

As the warrior of light wondered if his partner of flame had lost his senses, Takuya did a little jig on the spot. 'What's going on anyway? You didn't say much in your text, but –'

'Nothing definite.' Somehow, they'd both missed Kousei's arrival. 'The Doctor wants to go ahead with the operation, but Koichi refuses to assent to it.'

'Operation?' Takuya said blankly.

Koji looked almost pleadingly at his father, who obliged and explained.

The hallways were surprisingly silent as they walked through.

'Hey…Koji?' Takuya said finally.

'Yeah?'

'Can't…can't your parents just sign the form?'

Koji stopped walking. It was true; Koichi wasn't a legal adult therefore they didn't really need his consent for anything. 'They could,' he said finally. 'But they want it to be his choice, and besides, the surgery's not exactly…safe.'

'I think I get what you mean.' The sneaker scuffed along the floor. 'I guess the Digital World must have been like…Paradise, or something. Even despite the mess it was in. And I guess dying a hero does beat…this.' He shifted along uncomfortably.

'I thought the same thing yesterday,' Koji said quietly. 'I just had no idea how to say it.'

Takuya turned around when he realised the other had not resumed following him.

'What's that supposed to mean?' he asked. 'You've got that tone as if something went down.'

Koji almost asked: 'that has a tone?' but managed to restrain himself. Apparently Zoe had been correct about Takuya. But they were trying to have a serious conversation. 'You know me too well,' was what he said instead.

'Of course I do,' Takuya said smugly. 'I'm your best friend, aren't I?'

Koji looked at him. 'Yeah, yeah you are.'

'Good.' Takuya walked back to stand in front of him. 'Now spill.'

'Spill what?'

'What's got your boxers in a twist.'

'Takuya!'

Takuya shrugged. 'There's no-one else here to listen,' he pointed out.

'That's true…' He sighed. 'Well, I thought I'd try to talk with Koichi this morning and it blew up in my face.'

'Talk to…' Takuya's face scrunched up. 'Should it be that hard?'

'Way to rub salt in the wound Takuya.'

The brunet laughed sheepishly at that. 'Sorry Koji. But it is hard to imagine talking being heard.'

Koji wisely kept his retort to himself.

'But how did it blow up exactly?'

The younger twin looked at his feet and mumbled something.

'I didn't catch that.'

'I said Koichi yelled at me and then Dad came out and he had a seizure.'

'It runs in the family?' A pause. 'Oh, you mean Koichi had a – hang on, you're not supposed to go to the hospital for that.'

Koji gave him an odd look.

'Some kid on the soccer team.' Takuya waved a hand. 'Absence seizures; you know, he stares at nothing for a few minutes and then acts as if nothing's happened.'

'You make it sound like it's…' Koji said slowly. '…normal.'

'Well, sure.' Takuya shrugged. 'He's a funny guy and a good soccer player too. Just have to make sure the ball's not going for his head when he's spaced out, but we look after our own anyway.'

Koji said nothing to that. Takuya, guessing the reason, accepted the silence.

'But seriously, what made you guys go to the hospital.' Koji still said nothing. 'Uh…hello?'

'He was running a fever from yesterday's rain, and he was sitting in the rain today too,' the warrior of light explained finally. 'And Dad was worried for some reason; he sent me inside for Mum so I missed what actually happened.'

'Probably a good thing,' Takuya said wisely. When Koji gave him an odd look, he explained: 'then you'd be missing your head too.'

They bumped into Tomoko outside the door. She smiled tiredly at the pair.

'You're Koji's friend, aren't you?' she said. 'I remember you from –'

'We weren't friends then Mum,' Koji cut in.

'Whatever you say.' But the light joking tone was missing. 'We just finished talking to the Doctor.'

'What'd he say?' Takuya asked, after Koji failed to. Granted, in Koji's defence, he hadn't had enough time to formulate the question.

Tomoko looked at Koji; he nodded. 'A lot of things,' she said quietly. 'Mainly, he thinks it's more a psychological problem than a physical one and that we're awful parents.'

'He doesn't think that,' Kousei said from inside, gesturing them to come inside.

Takuya was surprised to find the bed empty.

'Shouldn't Koichi be here?'

Koji was surprised too.

Kousei shook his head tiredly. 'The Doctor chose to talk to us now because Koichi wasn't here, although he hadn't told anyone where he was going.'

'We know he's still in the hospital at least,' Tomoko pointed out, sadness still in her tone. 'The alarm hasn't gone off yet.'

Kousei just shook his head. 'We'd better get back to the explanation before they think –'

'Hang on,' Koji broke in. 'The Doctor called you two –'

'No,' his father interrupted. 'He said that Koichi –'

'Koichi said –'

'Koji, would you stop interrupting me!'

Takuya didn't have to try to hold in the snickers; it was just a reflection of the gravity of the situation.

Koji also did not argue, instead sitting on the bed as his mother sat beside him and Takuya took the remaining chair. Actually, he sat on the arm but no-one noted it.

'What Tomoko was talking about was actually a side-effect of the postictal sleep,' Kousei continued tiredly. 'Maybe mixed in with the fever. He was looking for us…and couldn't see us. What he said after that sounded as if he'd flashed back to the night of the fire, when he woke on the gurney and then the hospital when we weren't in sight.'

Takuya was starting to feel a little uncomfortable and he quickly stood. 'I think I'll go look for Koichi.' He bowed quickly. 'Thank you Mrs Minamoto, Mr Minamoto – ' He waved at Koji and quickly vanished out the door.

Koji fidgeted slightly in his place. 'Do you think –' he asked, almost tentatively. 'That Koichi sometimes felt we weren't around when he needed us?'

'By "we" do you mean you?' Kousei asked.

Koji's head shot up of its own accord.

'It's written all over your face honey,' Tomoko said quietly. 'But the truth is that all of us, and that includes Koichi, are to blame. Maybe even the classmates the two of you have had – look at that young Kanbara for instance. If you'd have had a friend like him from the start you would have been far more cheerful, mischievous and a little less cold and quiet.'

'Yeah, I guess you're right.' She probably was, although that didn't sound like a particularly good thing.

'Good. No go talk to your brother before you explode.' She pushed him lightly off the bed.

As Koji was leaving, he caught his father asking his mother something, and a bit of her reply.

'I found a picture –'

He closed the door, shutting his parents' voices out. Somehow, they were quietly melting. Something he couldn't understand. Maybe, once he was a parent – or even when he fell in love –

He set off down the corridor again.

He was surprised to find Koichi on the roof; it was a very un-Koichi like thing to do. Just like climbing trees were, and making sneaky plans that worked. And apparently racing Takuya.

Of all of them, the last was probably the most shocking. Koji hadn't guessed his brother had a competitive streak. Or could run fast, considering he normally wound up missing sport in case he got too dizzy and therefore hypersensitive to light.

Koichi was leaning on the protection rail – or what was supposed to be a protection rail. It wasn't like the one on the roof of the school building, where their arms only fit up till the wrist. Someone their age could crawl through the bars quite easily, and somebody agile enough to jump over a metre could clear the top with no problem.

Koji was relieved that his brother hadn't gotten any ideas from that. Considering he was an eagle, the possibility that clear the top wasn't far-fetched in the least, and even if he couldn't the horizontal bars were spaced evenly and enough for most people to be able to climb. He supposed it was only their for wheelchairs and walking sticks; after all, it was a place where sick people were, so likely no-body expected teens to be sneaking about the place.

'Hi,' he said quietly, and a tad awkwardly. Part of him wanted to cross his fingers for luck – but he wasn't that far gone.

Koichi ignored him, although he did move away from the rails a little.

'Right.' An idea suddenly sprung into mind, and Koji had to think he had been spending too much time with Takuya after all. Or maybe he was blaming the other without a cause, because would even Takuya come up with a hair-brained scheme like this?

And to think, it all relied on the fact that Koji knew the roof better than his brother. And for longer.

'Well, if you really want me to leave and vanish from your life –' He easily jumped over the railings.

Koichi's expression quickly changed to shock, but Koji was thereafter forced to curse his fringe for obscuring his vision because he missed what happened next. However, as expected he felt solid ground under his feet and to his relief there was also a vice grip around his wrist.

Although he did feel slightly guilty about tricking his brother. And he was also slightly concerned about the circulation below the wrist…or above in this case. 'Uhh…Koichi…? Do you realise there's a lower roof here?

'You mean – you –' Koichi spluttered, going a little red in the face and abruptly letting go. Even if Koji had fallen, which he hadn't, he would have simply landed flat on his back as the lower roof was spread below on a horizontal plane.

There was a huff and then Koichi's face vanished from view.

'Koichi?'

There was a choking sound as an answer, and Koji decided it was probably better for the both of them if they couldn't see each other. Koichi was still up on the upper roof, so he was going to have to deal with the lower one.

'You know, if you don't like the idea of doctors cutting your head, you can always borrow my lasers.' A pause. 'Or you have two perfectly good swords yourself.'

Another choking sound, although this one sounded a little like laughter as well. 'You're – you –'

'I can't believe I just said that,' Koji muttered. 'I swear Takuya would say that.'

There was a laugh disguised as a sob…or the other way around.

'Koichi?' he asked, worried.

There was silence for a moment, and Koji was sure the other wasn't going to answer…but he did. Finally.

'Why – why couldn't you leave well enough alone?'

'Because you might have been okay about the idea of just dying, but I wasn't,' was the simple reply. 'And if Mum and Dad found out – and be glad I gave them the watered version – you'd be grounded for the rest of your life and probably a part of some other reincarnation as well.' Koji didn't even realise his voice had risen until it dropped again. 'And I know we weren't as close after that fire and all, 'cause I was feeling guilty for running out and forgetting – ' He scuffed his toe along the roofing tiles. 'But Dad wanted to go in, you know?'

Silence, but Koji could swear he could hear his brother breathing and knew the other was listening.

'And you know Mum and Dad are hardly ever home because they're working hard for us.' He had finally gotten an answer to that as well. Them. Not just Koichi; their parents made sure both of them had their needs fulfilled. And he'd never even realised how expensive his sporting activities could get. And to think both of them had been jealous of each other's situation to an extent, resentful for things they shouldn't have been – but it was something neither of them needed to admit. They both knew it.

'And we were all being idiots since we just couldn't talk.' There. He'd said it. 'And that's the main problem. Because then maybe I would have realised sooner. Maybe we'd have grown up a little slower, and enjoyed things more. Maybe we could have made things easier on Mum and Dad, and maybe they could have said things too instead of giving us more space than we really should have had. But I guess they wanted us to work things out on our own, even if everyone was involved and everyone was to blame…' His voice trailed off.

'You sound like an adult,' Koichi mumbled unexpectedly.

'I think that was Mum,' Koji returned. 'She said something similar.' A pause. 'And the Digital World helped too. It was like a slap in the face, but beneath all that fighting and world saving there were more important things. Places we'd never seen. Things we'd never have otherwise learnt. And friends – ' He broke off at a choked cry. 'Koichi?'

Just the sound of muffled crying. Koji stood on his tiptoes and reached for the metal bars, jumping as soon as he was sure and swinging himself through the easiest gap. As expected, Koichi had chosen one of the roof's pillars to seek refuge behind, and Koji went quietly over and knelt down. Koichi's head was on his knees, and his body was shaking slightly.

'What is this about?' he asked softly.

Koichi just shook his head in tears, but when the other repeated the question he responded. 'Breezy village – the Floramon –'

'You scanned their data, didn't you.'

The elder twin, the warrior of darkness, didn't need to answer that. It was obvious.

'And you were closer to them than any of us too,' Koji said quietly. 'Why?' He could guess, but he wanted the answer from his brother.

And it seemed Koichi was a little more forthcoming with them as well as he obligingly spoke. 'They asked me to,' he said thickly. 'The Elder – most of the adults – knew the land was degrading and would only restore to its full potential with Lucemon's defeat. They knew – replacing the code otherwise – it was like putting sticky tape over and over – '

The rest of them hadn't known that. Even if they could have seen, with the way things struggled to grow. With the condition of the Trailmon tracks. Hell, if Takuya and Koji had compared their arrivals earlier they would have realised. Takuya replacing the tracks almost caused the Trailmon the twins rode to derail.

'Sticky tape?'

'It doesn't work,' Koichi's muffled voice cried. 'It's like taking pills and needles and still –'

'You understood,' Koji said when the other failed to go on. 'You understood the condition of the Digital World better than us, because you felt you were in the same condition. And it was the death of the Digital World that saved it, taking its data and somehow keeping it from Lucemon.' He hugged his brother; the other didn't resist. 'But people are different,' he whispered into the other's ear. 'If you die, who's going to bring you back to life? If you break, who's going to fix you? I don't want a broken or dead brother Koichi. I might be selfish; maybe this isn't what you want. I don't know. And I think you don't know either. But think things through. The Digital World came back to life. You missed it; it was beautiful. Better than we'd ever seen it. It was a risk; we might not have defeated Lucemon, but we did.'

Koichi breathed deeply, then sniffed. 'I get you,' he said quietly. 'But the Digital World had everyone fighting for it, even if the paths were different. If they hadn't, Lucemon would have realised what Cherubimon had started, what I was doing…'

'So we were decoys?' Koji asked, a little amused now that it was all over. 'Glad to know, but we can be your decoys here as well you know. We might not be there in person; I doubt even Mum or Dad would be allowed in the operating theatre, but we'll all be thinking of you all the same. And no doubt JP'll have a blast explaining your homework to you and I'll have a blast watching you be the tutee for a change. And Tommy's brother is probably going to want to know you better too; he gave Tommy the wrong book to return to you so he must plan to see you at least once…or twice.'

'He's smart,' Koichi mumbled.

'And Tommy inherited that; you wouldn't believe the ideas that kid comes up with.' Koji shook his head. 'He's the one who thought you might have been playing a double-crosser and he's the one who figured out your stunt in the end. Not to mention he plays games better than any kid I've seen.'

'They're good friends.'

'They're the best,' Koji agreed. 'And they want to be your friends too, and it's not really your right to deny them that. It wouldn't be fair to them. And it wouldn't be fair to you either, because you can't honestly tell me you're happy like this. And I know you don't want – no, can't – go on like this either. How can you stay in your room so long?'

'I can't,' Koichi admitted, finally lifting his head, the afternoon sun reflecting off the drops of tears that hovered around his lashes and smeared his face. 'It's suffocating. And the dark – it's comforting, but at the same time – ' He shivered a little in the other's embrace. 'It's – I don't know – cold I guess. Emotionless. Like a black hole that sucks out pain and emotion and…everything.'

'Happiness too?' Koji asked.

Koichi considered. 'Yeah, happiness too.'

A pause. 'What about your spirits then?'

'The same. But they weren't the real thing.' His arms curled around his knees. 'The true warriors of darkness –'

'Lowemon and JagerLowemon.'

'I never knew their names.' Koichi looked at a spot between his knees. 'Only at the very end – they were warm, and I felt like crying – except it was already too late to cry –'

'It's not too late to cry.' Koji rested his chin on top of the other's hair.

'Why?'

'I think I might have cried when you beat me,' Koji confessed. 'But no telling anyone else, 'kay?'

''kay.' A pause. 'Only if you promise me something.'

'It better not be your will or anything,' Koji frowned. And he'd hoped the roundabout way would work too, and it had been going so well…

'It's not that, but…' Koichi paused, then sniffed again. 'Please don't vanish in front of me again.'

'Only if you promise not to do the same thing.'

And Koji left the hospital that night thinking about the conversation they had had. Thinking about all the things he'd never known, not even imagined. The things right in front of his face that he hadn't realised, the similarities between an internal world and the world outside. And beyond that, bonds that had been drawn between things.

Koichi too had a lot to think about once he was back in bed and properly scolded. He almost broke down and cried again when his mother embraced him, then gave it up and sobbed into her shirt like a baby as she stroked his hair. For some reason, the doctor seemed quite pleased with his reaction, and even lightly commented if his brother would be needing an ear or a punching bag. Perhaps the former, but his mother said Takuya was around, and Tommy too, and they would be the perfect ears.

And he thought about little Flora, sweet and innocent and failing to understand but knowing things would end soon and knowing she had to be happy while she could. Unlike him, who had thrown it away instead, even when his time had been prolonged and he could have done so much more. But for a long time, well before the Digital World, he had locked himself away from his reality with books and stories and art. Compared to that, the earth beneath his fingers had been a strange thing. But planting those flowers had been satisfying, even if they hadn't grown as they should. And it had been fun. Little Flora dancing around with her little can, being on occasion more of a hindrance than a help but a bright spot of sunshine all the same.

There was plenty of space in the backyard. Maybe he could grow a garden. He could even put gnomes in it – except the gnomes would be the Floramon, and even the Mushroomon. Maybe even the ten warriors, and Cherubimon and Ophanimon and Seraphimon; Seraphimon would be difficult. He'd only seen him once, and not particularly closely. And Bokomon and Neemon too, except he hadn't focused much on them either.

Maybe Koji was right; he hadn't thought of it that way before. Maybe it wasn't so frightening after all. Or so impossible. Maybe it was just the same risk.

And maybe – no, definitely – he didn't have to do it alone. Although he almost reconsidered when he found out he had to be awake for the entire thing. But his parents were there. Koji was there. His friends were there too, even if they hung back a little awkwardly since the ice was still coating things. But their presence made everything warmer…although the Doctor wasn't entirely pleased as all the excitement meant his fever was still strong.

But no more illusions. Of any kind.